Was Labour 1997-2010 The Worst Government Ever?

Over on the Telegraph blogs Sean Thomas outlines the case and it is hard to argue with.

I suppose worst ever might be pushing it- the governments that presided over the Irish potato famine or appeasement might be worse- but Blair and Brown surely led the most incompetent administrations in British post war history.

It's not that other governments didn't do worse in particular areas than Labour in this era- it's that there was full spectrum failure in pretty much every department- the economy, defence, foreign policy, education, welfare, immigration, race relations, inequality and health care were all disaster areas when Labour left office.

Can anyone think of any substantive successes associated with the last government>

Handing A Madman The Controls

Alastair Darling's take on Gordon Brown tenure as Prime Minister is devastating even if it merely confirms what has already been written- that Brown was deluded about the economic situation, impossible to reason with, a bully and governed through lackeys.

It also confirms my belief that if Labour had wanted to be a serious opposition to the coalition, who could form a credible alternative government, then they should have persuaded Alastair Darling to stand for the leadership.

Still given that this is the latest memoir- following on from Mandelson's and Blair's- to confirm that all the hotly denied rumours of Gordon Brown's behaviour were in fact true and had been an issue in government since day one- why was he elevated to the leadership without any opposition? It is hard to believe that there were not enough MPs who knew about Brown's behaviour to give their signatures to a rival candidate. They chose collectively to put their own careers ahead of saving their party and the country the disaster of a Brown premiership.

A Cunning Plan

The BBC has learned* that David Cameron set up a secret unit within Whitehall to mount covert economic operations against Colonel Gaddafi.

The UK has been conducting sabotage against the Gadaffi regime? That certainly explains this photograph:

Brilliant, yet diabolical.

* I believe "has learnt" means "has been leaked by spin doctors".

Hacking Medical Records- Then And Now.

Gordon Brown claimed that the Sun hacked his son's medical records in order to leak them to the press. This appears to be untrue but it still outraged Labour MPs and supporters.

Of course releasing someone's medical records for their own benefit is despicable.

So it's odd that I don't seem to be able to find any record of Gordon Brown condeming the way Alastair Campbell leaked the medical records of 91 year old Rose Addis because her family complained of her mistreatment by the hospital she was supposed to be receiving reatment from in order to humiliate her.

Turkeys Lobbying For Santa

Why is it that trade unions lobby politicians on behalf of spies from a regime that bans independent trade unions?

Scottish Gravitas

Ed Balls on Chancellors of the Exchequer:

After 18 years of measured tones from Tory grandees followed by 13 years of Scottish gravitas, we are not used to hearing our chancellor sounding excitable and impulsive.

If only we had a Chancellor more like Gordon Brown....

Gordon Brown Is Not The Worst PM Ever.....

.....just the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The historians poll of post war prime ministers that rates Gordon Brown as the 3rd worst PM since the war is as silly and argument provoking as all these surveys. My own ranking of British PMs since the Reform Act of 1831 is here. However as Joseph Tagaki points out, much of the problems of Brown's tenure were to do with his previous stint as Chancellor under Tony Blair, say what you want about Brown but his Chancellor was much better than Blair's. There are too many Chancellors to rank easily for the whole post war period, but if the starting point is 1979 then I'd rank them in something like this order:

1. Geoffrey Howe
2. Ken Clarke
3. Norman Lamont*
4. Alastair Darling**
5. Nigel Lawson
6. John Major
7. Gordon Brown

How far back would one have to go to find a Chancellor who was worse than Brown? At least as far back as Anthony Barber in the 1970s but possibly all the way back to before the War.

* Norman Lamont is often seen as a failure but he gets a lot of unfair blame for the shortcomings of John Major and Nigel Lawson and doesn't get enough credit for the success during Ken Clarke's tenure.

** Had one hell of a mess to deal with.

Cliche Watch

What the pundits say about Brown's exit:

Kevin Maguire-"Nothing became him as the manner of his leaving"

Donald Macintyre- "Appropriately perhaps it's a line from the Scottish play that may act as his epitaph – political rather than actual, of course – that "nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it". "

Daniel Hannan- "For once, the word “tragedy” is exactly apposite. I have laboured the Brown/Macbeth parallel so often as to try the patience of every reader of this blog, but it is appropriate to close by quoting that play one more time: “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it”. "

Jackie Ashley- "Nothing became him so much as the manner of his going."


The thing is though, the cliche doesn't even apply, his exit has been entirely in character with everything else he has done- cynical, tribal and graceless.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Still it will put pressure on Nick Clegg not to do a deal with the Tores.

Gordon Is Sorry.

Having been away from my computer for the last week, I never got round to revealing my exclusive footage of Gordon Brown apologising to Gillian Duffy for calling her a bigot.

Experience

Gordon Brown: 'His experience now looks like a handicap'

Experience is only good if it equips someone with positive skills. Given that Brown's experience is of total incompetence and a demonstrable inability to learn from his mistakes then experience is indeed going to be a handicap.

Public "Not Angry" With Brown- Says Brown

He's probably right though. The public have moved onto far more dangerous emotions- pity and contempt. At least there is a certain respect that goes with anger.

Gordon's Elvis Moment

This is the moment commentators will look back on and proclaim that it was when Gordon Brown completely lost his marbles.

In a couple of months it is going to be revealed that the Labour leadership has been tearing itself apart in this election.

The Debate

As I said yesterday I didn't think the debate between Brown, Cameron and Clegg would be worth watching. Unless the three way stand off probably went something like this, then I will stick to preconceived notion that it is a waste of time:

International Man Of Mockery

When even the Taiwanese, who are no slouches when it comes to political fisticuffs, think Gordon Brown's violence is worthy of ridicule then it is safe to say that he is officially a global figure of fun.



Update: I've just heard from a source* who works in Downing Street that Gordon Brown was heard screaming in his office "Fluctuations! Fluctuations!", but when Alastair Darling rushed in with a plan to stabilise sterling he found out that Brown was actually on the phone to the Taiwanese government complaining about this animation.

* Imaginary sources are equally valid.

You Wouldn't Like Him When He's Angry.... Or When He's Not.

Given that Labour's new slogan "A Future Fair For All" hasn't really captured the public imagination, plus it appears to be yet another line they've stolen from the BNP (why must the future be 'fair' rather than dark or swarthy?), so they need a new slogan.

Now Gordon Brown is never again going to be able to pose as a dull but effective policy wonk given the mess that he's made of the economy and the Labour Party so what they should do is take the revelations of his temper tantrums and use them to their advantage.

The new slogan should "You Wouldn't Like Me When I Am Angry", put it on a giant poster of Brown glowering menacingly and they'll turn what seems to be a weakness into a slightly cool quirk.

They could then play up the theme during the election with Brown going into rages at random voters during meet and greet sessions culminating in the mother of all tantrums during the televised debate when he can rip his shirt off and throw a mobile phone into David Cameron's face during a discussion on education reform.

I'd vote for him if he did that.

Violent Gordon.

These allegations against Gordon Brown are so explosive that if they weren't by Andrew Rawnsley-a Labour leaning reporter with an established track record as a journalist- would seem too extreme to be true. If his much rumoured temper is so extreme that he physically assaults the people who work for him then he has to go.

Politically it is potentially disastrous if the television stations lead on the allegations tomorrow- it is hard to imagine what could make someone look worse than a revelation that he physically man handles secretaries who displease him and has the temper of a five year old. The fact that he doesn't seem to lose his temper so badly with people who would be in a position to fight back, cabinet colleagues for example, is revealing.

I suppose those who called him the Prime Mentalist can feel vindicated.

Update: Apart from the Daily Mail no publication is picking up on this story. Have the lawyers been wheeled out?

Preparing For The Iraq War

The latest news from the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war make depressing reading. Geoff Hoon's revelation that Gordon Brown blocked funding for helicopters and the news that Tony Blair delayed preparations for the war for months in order to pretend that the decision to invade had yet to be finalised is appalling.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of going to war, and I believe the case for removing Saddam was persuasive, there can be no justification for going to war knowingly unprepared. Blair always seemed to like being hailed as an international statesman by committing British troops to action but was unwilling to make the political sacrifice of confronting his Chancellor in order to secure the funds to pay for it.

There is no justification for going to war incompetently and this is the real reason why the war has become so unpopular not the arguments about the legality. The public were largely supportive of the war when Baghdad fell to the allies and previous wars of similar legal status have been generally supported if they are successful.

Most of the above also applies in spadesto the inept American handling of the invasion too, at least under the mismanagement of Donald Rumsfeld.

Incompetent Machiavellians.

I figured that there was no point in blogging about the Hoon-Hewitt coup attampt on the grounds that if there is one thing that Labour have demonstrated since 2007 is that they are incapable of knifing the man driving the bus over a cliff. There have been so many missed opportunities to eject him at a good time that it seems unlikely that they would finally do it months before an election.

If all the senior Labour figures who know Brown is useless- Clarke, Hoon, Hewitt, Milburn, Purnell, D Miliband, Field, Byers, Hutton & Flint among others- had acted in concert either to challenge Brown in 2007 or to oust him at the 2008 conference they could have stopped him. Instead they come out one at a time and do enough to wound him but not deliver the fatal blow.

It seems I was right to ignore it.

How Crap Is Labour's Economic Management- A Comparison.

As I mentioned earlier the UK is dead last out of the G20 economies to leave the recession. This means we are the bottom 5%. If we assume economic competence is normally distributed, this means that Gordon Brown is at least 1.65 standard deviations below the world mean of economic competence. So what is the equivalent of being 1.65 standard deviations below the mean whilst simultaneously boasting about leading the world economically? I can think of a couple of comparisons:

1. Someone 5 foot 5 but claiming to be drafted by the NBA.
2. Having an IQ of 75 but claiming to be a Mastermind champion (No Blunkett/Lammy jokes)

Any other comparisons are welcome in the comments.